Trace Recordings: mlbeazley@mac.com
Trace Recordings is proud to present
Based in London, Rothko were founded by Mark Beazley and have been in existence since the spring of 1997, playing their first show at The Hope and Anchor in Islington in August the same year.
Their first release was a 7" single, For Danny, on Fierce Panda in the Autumn of '97 and the original line up of Mark, Crawford Blair and Jon Meade, went on to release EP's, singles and three albums, on labels such as Lo Recordings, Bella Union, Foundry, Kraak, Zeal and Narwhal.
In 2000 Mark signed a publishing deal with Mute Song.
The original line up disbanded in 2001 and Mark carried on the Rothko name. His first release on his own was his collaboration with Japanese ambient master Susumu Yokota, the 12" EP Waters Edge on Jon Tye's Lo Recordings.
Late in 2001, Mark signed a deal with Too Pure Records and in 2002 released the album 'A Continual Search For Origins' and 7" single Red Cells.
In 2003 Mark started his own label, Trace Recordings, releasing the critically acclaimed Wish For A World Without Hurt album, a collaboration with BLK w/BEAR aka Washington DC based sound and visual artist Jim Adams.
Since 2004, the line up has been Mark with Michael Donnellly on bass guitar, Ben Page on keyboards and Tom Page on drums and percussion.
In recent years, the group have toured extensively in France and their most recent album, Eleven Stages of Intervention, was released on the Bip Hop label of Marseille in June 2007, followed in September 07 by the retrospective CDr album A Life Lived Elsewhere
Rothko Web Sites
Rothko yahoo group
Rothko Facebook
- Rothko
- BLK w/ BEAR
- Mark Beazley
- Philippe Petit
- Rocketnumbernine
- David Hurn
- Building Castles Out Of Matchsticks
- The Slow Life
- Signals
- Stephen Spera
- Pete Smith
Based in London, Rothko were founded by Mark Beazley and have been in existence since the spring of 1997, playing their first show at The Hope and Anchor in Islington in August the same year.
Their first release was a 7" single, For Danny, on Fierce Panda in the Autumn of '97 and the original line up of Mark, Crawford Blair and Jon Meade, went on to release EP's, singles and three albums, on labels such as Lo Recordings, Bella Union, Foundry, Kraak, Zeal and Narwhal.
In 2000 Mark signed a publishing deal with Mute Song.
The original line up disbanded in 2001 and Mark carried on the Rothko name. His first release on his own was his collaboration with Japanese ambient master Susumu Yokota, the 12" EP Waters Edge on Jon Tye's Lo Recordings.
Late in 2001, Mark signed a deal with Too Pure Records and in 2002 released the album 'A Continual Search For Origins' and 7" single Red Cells.
In 2003 Mark started his own label, Trace Recordings, releasing the critically acclaimed Wish For A World Without Hurt album, a collaboration with BLK w/BEAR aka Washington DC based sound and visual artist Jim Adams.
Since 2004, the line up has been Mark with Michael Donnellly on bass guitar, Ben Page on keyboards and Tom Page on drums and percussion.
In recent years, the group have toured extensively in France and their most recent album, Eleven Stages of Intervention, was released on the Bip Hop label of Marseille in June 2007, followed in September 07 by the retrospective CDr album A Life Lived Elsewhere
Rothko Web Sites
Rothko yahoo group
Rothko Facebook
BLK w/ BEAR
BLK w/ BEAR is the audio-art pseudonym for Washington DC sound and visual artist JS Adams.
His audio performances and temporal turntable installations - staged in art spaces across the Metro DC area and in NYC's Tribeca arts district - include forced physical and electronic looping of altered vinyl recordings, found sound, and media decay along with manipulated voice synthesis.
His recordings - released on Kuma-Chan [ USA ] and Trace Recordings [ UK ] - have accompanied independent film/video projects in NYC and London.
Selections from his acclaimed Wish for a World without Hurt collaboration with London's Rothko have been used in the Discovery's Channel's Emmy-nominated The Flight that Fought Back and BBC1's Little England's Big Swim. Adams is curator of the Triangle Artists Group's annual sound-art and spoken-word fest Queering Sound, member of Outmusic and the American Composers Forum DC chapter.
LIVE + STUDIO ASSIST : Doug Poplin [ cello + effects ] P D Sexton [ laptop + bass ] Renee Shaw [ live video mix ] R H Bear [ bass + effects ]
BLK w/BEAR Web Sites
www.artbear.com .
www.myspace.com/blkwbear
BLK w/BEAR Images
http://www.adams-dress.com/pictures/dogs_jsa.jpg
http://www.adams-dress.com/pictures/ep001.jpg
Mark Beazley
Mark is the founder member of the group Rothko and also runs Trace Recordings.
This is the first time that Mark will be releasing purely solo material.
The recordings for Stateless have been partly inspired by my working on TV music for the Discovery Channel.
I won't have a mypace page or any other so called 'social networking site' page. The only place to hear these tracks, which I will add to and update, is here.
Philippe Petit Rocketnumbernine
Philippe Petit is the man behind the influential cult labels Pandemonium and BiP_H0p. He's also a DJ who performs all around the world, a Journalist, radio presenter and musical activist, who's group, Strings Of Consciousness, who were on Barry Adamson's Central Control label, received worldwide critical acclaim.
To say that I am delighted to welcome Philippe to the Trace family is an understatement in the extreme! His Silk-Screened album follows on from his recent collaborations with musical luminaries such as Lydia Lunch, Jim Thirlwell, Barry Adamson, Mira Calix, Kammerflimmer Kollektief, Scanner, Scott McCloud, Cosey Fanni Tutti and many more. The list of all his work supporting alternative music over the past 25 years would fill volumes. He is, quite simply, a legend. Please take the time to visit his web-sites to find out more.
Philippe's web sites
Philippe's label, BiP_H0p
Philippe's Myspace
Rocketnumbernine are brothers Ben and Tom Page, who create freeflowing, jazz inflected improvisations using keyboards, electronics and drums. Thier debut album, You Reflect Me, has been picking up rave reviews and it's an honour to have them on the label. They also both play in Rothko, Ben also plays in his experimental duo Elite Barbarian, and Tom plays drums in The Memory Band and The Sleeping Years.
Rocketnumbernine web sites
Rocketnumbernine Myspace
Elite Barbarian Myspace
David Hurn
David Hurn is a hidden treasure. One of the UK’s most thoughtful and original songwriters, penning bittersweet songs of love, hate life and death and everything in between. With shows at SXSW and support slots with Mark Eitzel, his reputation as a writer continues to grow and grow. His first release on Trace, ‘Black Flowers’ is a collection of instrumental recordings that David made in 1997 and 1998 on a 4 track tape recorder, producing a set of warm, deeply thoughtful and contemplative tracks. David also plays in the semi-mythical improvisation group Four Seasons Television with long time collaborator James O’Sullivan.
David's Contacts:
davidhurn.co.uk
myspace
Building Castles Out Of Matchsticks
Building Castles Out Of Matchsticks is the musical diary of Anne Sulikowski.
She began this project in the Winter of 2000 when she got her first personal computer. Since then she has musically documented and explored both extraordinary events and the simple pleasures and boredom of her everyday life.
Anne’s music ranges widely from chorus-refrain synth-pop to crackled blips and skips of ambience and minimalism to deep-listening drones.
Her songs are filled with analogue synthesis, broken guitar strumming, pedal manipulations, found sounds, disjointed beats and barely there vocals..
Anne is also a highly accomplished film maker and photographer and also hosts a radio show; Bleeps and Hums, on CFMU 93.3 FM McMaster University Radio, [Canada] Wednesdays 9pm to 10:30pm.
Anne's myspace / film / photography
www.myspace.com/buildingcastlesoutofmatchsticks
Anne’s radio
http://cfmu.mcmaster.ca/
The Slow Life are : Crawford Blair - original member of Rothko, on bass, keys and drones, Darren Bancroft, voice and lyrics, Ben Jones on drums and acoustic guitar and Dan Baker, on guitar, keys and drones.
Dedicated to distilling maximum beauty from Drums, Guitars, Voice and the occasional laptop flourish, they are influenced by and take references from the likes of Codeine, Sigur Ros, Talk Talk, Low, Bark Psychosis and Swans. The group build their sound slowly and carefully, as only they know how. Darren Bancroft’s wonderful, plaintive voice pins down the music, occasionally breaking free to drift off into the ether.
The Slow Life create and build a lexicon of beautiful near-silences, scorched earth string samples, unearthly drones/howls and suspended, reverberating guitar. A beautiful and inspiring addition to the Trace roster.
.
The Slow Life myspace
The Slow Life
Signals
Signals was formed by Chris Gowers (Karina ESP, Evelyn Records) and Phil Julian (Cheapmachines, Authorised Version) during summer 2004, initially to work on collaborative performance for the 2004 London Headphone Festival.
During November 2005, Mark Beazley of Rothko joined Signals to play live as part of the on-going Evelyn Records evenings in London, cementing the core line-up.
The trio’s live performance’s consist of 15 to 20 minute drone and melody explorations, utilizing bowed and effected guitar, live laptop manipulations and sampling, bowed ceremonial bowls and effected bass guitar.
Cheapmachines Sites
www.a-version.co.uk/cheap
www.myspace.com/cheapmachines
Signals Mypsace
www.myspace.com/dronesignals
Stephen Spera
Stephen is the man behind the artwork and some of the music on TEN. He has been a fantastic help with his support of the label and it's an honour to have him on board
Stephen Spera was born in Philadelphia, Pa., USA. He studied at the University of the Arts, and had a successful career as Artist, Photographer, and Musician before moving to Manhattan. Spera's works have been exhibited all over the world, and is represented in many fine collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, NY, and the GETTY, Ca. He is author of many books and was included in Dennis Cooper's Little Caesar Anthology of American Poets under thirty. Stephen has performed in front of audiences worldwide and has received fellowships and grants, including 'Meet the Composer' in NYC.
Recently, Spera has had great critical acclaim with his "4H2O" cd on Parvoart Recordings (Germany) .. He is also founder and curator of a Museum of the curious, strange, and imaginary, the Museé Vaché, which may be seen on his MySpace site. Stephen is always at work on some project or other in his studio on lower Broadway in Manhattan
Stephen's Myspace
Myspace
Stephen's Design Website
Stephen Spera.Com
Pete Smith
Pete Smith is the man behind the artwork for recent rothko releases Eleven Stages Of Intervention, Fractures EP and A Life Lived Elsewhere and the main illustrations for this web site.
Since 2001 he has shared opinions, images and words with Rothko. His first musings with the band related to the large canvases of Mark Rothko and the shared experience of his work in isolation. This coupled with the first hearing of Rothko on headphones on a quiet summer evening began a need for expression and a hope for collaboration.
He has illustrated for the BBC music magazine and a number of other periodicals and is presently working on a number of projects with artists, writers and musicians to simply allow fusion of expression, harmony of thought and the facility for art without necessity.
Pete has worked in special education for ten years and has a Masters degree on the topic of communication through the arts. His work is a direct result of experiences witnessed, problems to be solved and a continual search for answers.
Pete Smith Web Site:
www.pasdesign.co.uk